


Second chance!

by fangirl2013



Category: The White Queen (TV)
Genre: AU, Baby, F/M, Grief, Hospitals, Modern
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-03
Updated: 2013-10-24
Packaged: 2017-12-30 10:14:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1017381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirl2013/pseuds/fangirl2013
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Modern): Anne is three months gone when Richard gets a call from the hospital saying she's been admitted. Of course, he starts to worry and also starts to think.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second chance!

**Author's Note:**

> I only have a few things to say, 1) I hope you enjoy this. 2) The second part of this that's marked with an 'x' is Richard thinking about when he found she was pregnant (there might be him referring back to another time, too). I hope you don't get too confused! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this!
> 
> This two parter is for a friend of mine whose birthday is today! So, I just wanted to do something for her birthday and Richard and Anne fic seemed appropriate. Happy Birthday, Lauren! :)

Richard’s legs began to burn and ache as he continued to run. His long legs, although, powerful seemed to ache in protest each time he tried to run faster. The worried ache in the bottom of his stomach hadn’t dissipated the entire time he had been running. If anything, each step he took seemed to make him feel worse. 

Running still and panting heavily, Richard finally spotted the reception to A&E. He saw the receptionist’s gaze turn to him just as he skidded to rather loud halt. Barely catching his breath, Richard began to speak to the woman. 

“My wife’s been admitted. She’s 3 months gone.” He explained to her, his worry lacing his words. 

The receptionist seemed to notice how he had spoken and tried to give Richard a somewhat sympathetic smile. Although, Richard was waiting for her to speak, he barely noticed the expression on her face. He was too enthralled in his thoughts to notice. 

“What’s your wife’s name, sir?” The receptionist asked Richard, politely, the expression on her face just as sympathetic as before.

As Richard told the woman Anne’s name, there was a painful tug in the pit of his stomach. From the moment he had been called by the nurse telling him of what had happened, he had immediately felt sick with worry. It had been his job to look after Anne and their baby but the feeling that he had failed them made him feel worse. 

The woman, who the badge on her uniform told him to be Karen, seemed to look at the computer in front of her for only a matter of seconds before she turned her attention back to him. 

“She’s in the first cubicle on the left. The one with the blue curtains.” She told him, pointing in the direction he needed to be going in. 

 

Richard looked to where she was pointing, and nodded his thanks to her. Running in the direction he had been told to go, Richard tried to stop himself from thinking the worst. The sound of his footsteps echoed in his ears but every time he tried to focus his mind of that, he would inevitably think of Anne and the baby. 

His heart clenched painfully in his chest, as he remembered just how they had both reacted when they had found about the baby. The two small blue lines on the pregnancy stick, Anne had insisted on buying, had changed their lives that day and despite his worry, Richard smiled slightly as he remembered the moment. Just like it was yesterday. 

X  
Richard approached his wife with a weary expression on his face. Apart of him was prepared for his wife’s diatribes as everything he seemed to do try help comfort her had been rebuffed or ignored. She had gotten better at accepting his help but sometimes, he could see that she didn't want to accept his hug or his words. 

He couldn't blame her, really. She was hurting, that was pretty obvious to him but as he continued to walk towards his wife, he tried to ignore his own desire to lash out. 

The pain of losing their son, their beloved son, was just as raw and potent as it had ever been. Despite the fact, nearly a year had passed. The hardest part of losing Edward had been the fact life had still continued to go on. The hours still ticked by, days still passed and more importantly, every little thing continued around them. 

For the first few weeks, after Edward had been taken away from them, Richard knew Anne had thought life would never go back to how it was and so there had been no point in trying. She had even told him so. 

Her words hadn’t been said to hurt him but nevertheless, each word seemed to remind him of what they had lost. Of what they could never get back. After this painful realisation, he had tried to comfort Anne as well as himself. 

Initially, he could feel the distance between the two of them widening. Her small hand shrugging off his hand, the way she'd move her head away from before he'd kiss her. The pain she felt over Edward was ever present in her eyes and as he looked at her, he didn't blame her for what she was doing. 

Anne had continued to distance herself way from Richard for the next month or so. It was a normal morning, however, before something between them changed and this time, for the better. 

Like usual, Anne was making their breakfast. Almost mechanically, Anne did everything she normally did. Sitting at the kitchen table, Richard watched as his wife plated up before turning her back towards him. He began to be filled with worry, however, when he watched his wife’s shoulders began to sag. 

Her heart wrenching sobs had filled the kitchen as she began to cry, heartily. Richard’s own heartache had seemed to worsen as he listened to his wife sob, and only a few seconds later, he had stood up from where he had been sitting and walked towards his wife. 

“Anne?” His voice had been soft as he spoke to his wife.

Anne had turned around, slowly, to look at Richard at his words. The tears had still streamed down her face, rapidly, leaving tear stained tracks in their wake. 

“I can't do this anymore, Richard.” Anne had breathed to him, brokenly. 

Richard’s heart had almost stopped as he heard his wife’s words. He had known she was going to tell him something he didn't want to hear. As to what, he hadn’t known. 

“I can’t be near you, anymore. It’s too painful.” Richard’s own tears had blinded him, temporarily, as he looked at his wife. 

He had just been about to speak when Anne interrupted him, softly. 

“I miss him so much. I really do. Every day I wake up thinking about him and then I remember what happened and that he’s not here. What makes it worse it that it’s obvious you love someone else.” There had been no bitterness in her words, simply sadness.

Anne had turned to look at Richard to gauge his reaction and it was almost as if she couldn't bear to look at him because she had immediately turned away from him. 

“I am not in love with anyone else.” Richard had told her, his voice incredulous. 

Apart of Anne wanted to believe him but she couldn’t. She had heard the rumours herself and she'd seen him smiling at her with her own eyes. The pain she had felt had almost been overpowering as she noticed how he had been with Elizabeth but she finally needed to tell him. 

Almost as she hadn’t heard him, she began to speak once more, tears clogging her voice. 

“Don't lie to me. Do you know what it’s like to go around feeling dead inside? Well, I do now. I can’t be the wife you want. I’m not the wife you want.” 

Something in Richard had snapped as he had listened to Anne speak. How the hell after all this time hadn’t she realised just how much she meant to him? The thought made him both angry and also surprised. 

“Anne, look at me.” Richard had then commanded to her, a little sharply. 

Something in Richard’s voice had made her look at him. Not because his tone had been sharp but because she had been able to hear desperation in his voice as well.  
Once Anne had turned to look at him, Richard had grasped her firmly by the shoulders, before he had looked into her eyes. 

“You're the only woman I have ever loved. From the age of fifteen, I was yours and I always want to be. I know what you're feeling because I’m feeling it, too. Edward wasn't just yours, you know. He was mine, too.” There had been gruffness in his voice that Anne had immediately noticed and to her surprise, she felt herself believing his words. 

Anne immediately had looked into Richard’s eyes, searching. She had desperately wanted to believe him or at least feel as if she was right to want to. As she had looked into Richard’s eyes, the truth in them had been startlingly clear. 

“Are you telling me the truth?” Richard’s eyes had widened in shock as he had taken in her words. 

As Richard had begun to speak once more, Anne had still felt weary of believing him. Her feelings had been building up for a while and to let them go was something she had known would take time. 

The pain in her chest, a constant reminder of what had started to doubt Richard’s feelings for her, had also seemed to spur her on to believe him. The pain of Edward’s death was something she knew she would never get over, not properly, anyway, but the idea of doing that alone made it seem harder to accept.

Things between Richard and Anne had become less strained in the days and weeks following their conversation. Instead of Anne pushing Richard away, whenever he tried to help her, she had let him do what he had intended to do in the first place. 

Richard’s movements stilled for a moment, in something akin to fear, as he approached his wife. Her face wasn't unlike how she had looked before everything had gone back on track. Something caught his attention, though. From where he was standing and, although, Anne had her back to him, he noticed that she was holding something white in her hands.  
With a somewhat confused and worried expression on his face, he had spoken to her. 

“Anne, what is wrong?” The worry he felt had come through in his voice but his worry had been evaporated the minute he had seen his wife’s face. 

Although, there were tears streaming down Anne’s face, she was smiling. It was the type of smile he had missed seeing.

Holding up the white stick in her hand, she spoke to him, her smile staying firmly on her face. 

“I’m having a baby. We're having a baby.” She cried to him, breathlessly. 

Richard couldn't help but immediately react to her words, walking up to her, he instantly enveloped in her hug. There was a slight pang in his chest as he remembered how he had felt when Anne announced she was pregnant with Edward but he swiftly pushed the thought aside. He didn't want to think of that now. 

X 

Richard had known straight away how the baby had meant to them both. It felt almost as if the baby was healing the hurt caused by Edward’s death, even if they both longed for him to be back with them. As Anne had progressed in her pregnancy, it had been obvious to Richard just how happy she was becoming. 

By this time, Richard had arrived at the cubicle she was supposedly in. His heart was still pounding rapidly in his chest and the nausea he had felt was beginning to worsen. 

He stepped into the cubicle to find a battered looking Anne and Robert Brackenbury before him. As soon as Anne noticed Richard, she signalled for him to come near her bed. Immediately, Richard began to clutch her hand once he had walked closer to her bed.


End file.
